Jayhawk-O-Lantern

Being a newly married couple (we're still newlyweds right?? *winks*) and just starting our sweet family together, Kenny and I are trying every year to have special holiday traditions. Things that are meaningful and fun that we do together.
I love thinking back to some of my families holiday fun and traditions and want to share similar experiences in our home! *grins*

So, this weekend I bought us Three huge pumpkins and we've set out to carve them!
I found some ideas and patterns for some really unique jack-o-lanterns on this website, carvingpumpkins.com. I was feeling a little intimidated, so we decided to start out with a kind of easier design.

I used a little projector that I bought at Hobby Lobby a few years ago to trace the pattern on our pumpkin.
Then we went to work sawing the top off and digging out all of the seeds and mush....ewwww *winks*

(Kenny captioned this picture "watch out for Karen" *laughs*)

Next I used some neat-o little exacto knives and tools that I borrowed from my sweet Dad to do the more intricate carving on the face of the pumpkin.You see, we didn't cut all the way through on most of the design, just shaved away a lot of the surface so that the candle would glow in specific locations brighter than others.
Next came the hard part, cutting all the way through for the "K U" and the jayhawks eye. The letters left behind some pretty fragile little areas that I had to be extra careful not to break off...
Finally we put a big pillar candle inside and let that light shine!

Oh what glorious fun! Tonight is Kenny's turn, I think we'll try a Charlie Brown "Great Pumpkin" design *winks*

Happy Halloween!